Committee on the Rights of the Child

Sixty-eighth session

12–30 January 2015

Item 4 of the provisional agenda

Consideration of reports of States parties

List of issues in relation to the report submitted by Iraq under article 8, paragraph 1, of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict

The State party is requested to submit in writing additional, updated information (15 pages maximum), if possible before 15 October 2014.

The Committee may take up a ny aspects of the children’s rights set out in the Optional Protocol during the dialogue with the State party.

1.Please provide detailed information on the exact roles played by the Ministry of Human Rights, the Child Welfare Authority and the other ministries mentioned in paragraph 14 of the State party report (CRC/C/OPAC/IRQ/1)in coordinating and monitoring the implementation of the Optional Protocol.

2.Please provide information on the steps taken to establish an interministerial committee on children and armed conflict, as called for by the United Nations Secretary-General and his Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict (A/68/878, para. 77).

3.Please provide further details regarding the steps that have been taken to disseminate information on the Optional Protocol and indicate whether there have been any relevant education programmes and awareness-raising campaigns targeting children.

4.Please provide updated information on the preparation of the new child protection strategy,whichisto include the theme of the involvement of children in armed conflict.

5.Please comment on reports that non-State armed groups occupy schools for their own purposes. Please indicate the measures taken to protect hospitals and schools and to increase the safety of children on their way to school. In particular, please indicate whether any preventive measures and rapid response systems have been put into place, and if attacks against hospitals and schools have been criminalized, investigated and prosecuted.

6.Please provide detailed information on non-State armed groups that recruit children for use in armed conflict, the estimated number of children currently enrolled in such groups and the measures taken to prevent the recruitment and use in hostilities of children by non-State armed groups.

7.Please provide information on the measures taken to prevent extremist armed groups from arbitrarily punishing girls and to prevent non-State armed groups from raping and murdering girls. Please indicate whether any members of those groups have been prosecuted.

8.In view of reports that women and girls risk harassment and abuse from thealmost exclusively male police and other security forces in Iraq, please explain what measures are taken to address misconduct and offences by members of the police and security forces. Please provide detailed information on all cases of misconduct that have led to an investigation and on the action taken against the perpetrators.

9.Please describe the measures taken to identify at the earliest stage children who,owing to their economic and social status,are especially vulnerable to practices contrary to the Optional Protocol, in particular children in street situations, refugee and asylum-seeking children and children with disabilities, who are reported to be used as suicidebombers. Please provide information on the safeguards that have been put in place to prevent the recruitment of children by armed groups and the measures that have been taken to combat factors that lead children to associate with armed groups, such as poverty and lack of education and economic opportunities, as well as discrimination towards some ethnic and religious groups.

10.Please provide information on efforts undertaken to establish safeguards against underage recruitment, including by the Awakening Councils. Please indicate what measures are taken to prevent underage recruitmentin the absence of formal identity papers and/or in relation to possible fake identity papers.

11.Given that Act No. 10 of 2005 categorizesas a war crime the conscription or enlistment of children under the age of 15 years into the national armed forces or their use as active participants in hostilities, albeit for offences committed between 17 July 1968 and 1 May 2003only, please indicate whether any efforts have been made to prohibit and criminalizethe recruitment and use in hostilities of children under the age of 18 yearsby both State and non-State armed groups.

12.Please provide data on the number of children who have been detained since the outbreak of war in 2003 on the grounds of their alleged association with armed groups or on terrorism charges. Please specifywhether any children are currently detained in extra-legal facilities, such as those run by the Iraqi intelligence services. Please comment on reports that children in detention suffer ill-treatment and torture, including sexual abuse, and poor detention conditions. Please indicate whether civil society organizations can obtain access to those children. Please also provide detailed information on the situation of children who were detained by the United Statesmilitary authorities and who have been transferred to Iraqi custody, and indicate whether there is any intention to release them.

13.Please provide updated information on the programmes that are in place to assist the physical and psychological recovery of children who were formerly associated with armed groups. Please provide details of efforts undertaken by the Ministry of Defence to release all children who were recruited and used by the Awakening Councils under its control and to prevent further recruitment.